DRX sweep Trace Esports in first lower bracket match of Champions

DRX DRX Korea Rank #4 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) swept Trace Esports Trace Esports China Rank #2 LuoK1ng Zhang Zhanpeng (张展鹏) Kai Lu Zhinan (卢智楠) FengF Song Xuefeng (宋学锋) heybay Ho Shun Hei Biank Zhong Jianfei (钟剑飞) Zhao 2-0 in the first lower bracket match of Champions. They have advanced to the lower round 2 match against the loser of LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena C0M Corbin Lee versus Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius , while Trace have been eliminated, placing 7th-8th in their first international appearance.

Both teams came into the match facing the prospect of an early elimination after suffering 0-2 losses in their first playoff games, DRX losing to Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #4 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid and Trace falling to EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 S1Mon Hsien Meng-Hsun (谢孟勋) ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) .

“We'll have to do whatever it takes to win,” MaKo said in the pre-match teaser.

The match kicked off on Trace's map pick of Lotus, where DRX brought out their signature Chamber pick in the hands of Foxy9 in place of the traditional Killjoy. Despite consistently finding first kills onto Foxy9 in A Rubble, Trace were unable to find rounds as DRX won six out seven 4v5 situations, bringing them up to a seemingly effortless 10-2 half. The Korean squad won the second pistol round to convert a dominant 13-3 victory.

BuZz commanded the server with a 1.54 rating, 21 kills to 11 deaths, 360 ACS, and a staggering 215 ADR. Flashback followed close behind with a 1.54 rating of his own and 14 kills to 6 deaths.

The one-sided story remained the same on DRX's pick of Abyss. LuoK1ng nearly clutched out a 1v3 on the first pistol, but DRX were able use bodies to block the Astra's Gravity Well from pulling the defusing player off of the spike. They utilized the same trick to narrowly win out the bonus round and ride the momentum to a 4-0 lead.

Trace continued to lose rounds by tragic margins; in round 5, LuoK1ng just ran out of the bullets he needed to spam the defusing player in another 1v3 attempt. Trace managed to squeak out a few rounds largely thanks to heroics from Kai , but the first half ultimately ended 9-3 in favor of DRX.

Any hopes of a comeback from Trace were shattered as DRX collected their fourth out of four pistol rounds in the match and closed out Abyss 13-5. This time, it was the supportive players who thrived; BeYN topped the scoreboard on Sova with a 1.44 rating, 18 kills to 11 deaths, and 170 ADR. Foxy9 followed his teammate with a 1.30 rating, 14 kills to 11 deaths, 173 ADR.

Looking ahead, DRX will face the loser of Team Heretics versus Leviatán in the lower round 2. If they win, they will advance to the top four and have the chance to play at the INSPIRE Arena in front of their home crowd.

“We will put our hundred percent into our prep and the next match coming up to make sure that we play at INSPIRE,” BeYN declared in the post-match interview.

DRX will return on Aug. 18.